Businesses and organizations are embracing plants and greenery with new fervor, inside and out. One of the most eye-catching trends in recent years is the green wall.

We often think of green walls as interior features, as seen in this residential lobby or this installation at the Instagram office in New York, but we have also seen businesses install green walls on their storefronts to attract passersby. The Uniqlo clothing store in Soho (Manhattan’s most famous shopping district) has a living wall on the front of their building that pops with color against the off-white building.

Green Wall Benefits

A green wall immediately grabs people’s attention. They can be an excellent opportunity to draw people into and through a space or to highlight a wall-mounted logo or curated set of products.

Other green wall benefits:

• Noise reduction. Green walls can help dampen sound. This makes green walls especially useful in hospitality, healthcare, and public areas of large buildings.
• Wellbeing. Plants are relaxing and bring people joy. In urban environments, green walls can be one of the biggest touchpoints someone has with nature that day.
• Creativity. With dozens of plant species to choose from, we can work with you to create something truly unique to your space — including a wide array of colors.
• Instagram-friendly photo backdrops for businesses catering to demographics active on social media.

Considerations

There are several factors to consider when installing a green wall:

Size

Green walls can be a few square feet or even hundreds of square feet. Whether you have a small wall accent wall behind a reception desk or a soaring atrium, the infrastructure for a green wall can be scaled up or down to suit the vision

Lighting

Natural lighting is wonderful, but it’s not always available. With supplemental LED lighting, a green wall can thrive just about anywhere

Maintenance

Green walls need to be watered every few weeks and treated for plant disease and possible pests. A green wall is its own little ecosystem, and it’s important to keep each plant in it healthy.

A recent project

Watch our technicians complete a green wall install from start to finish in this time lapse video.

How to get started

Plants By Design is a certified expert in NextGen Living Walls! We love this wall system for both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Check out NextGen’s catalog where you can begin gathering inspiration. Then, contact us to start a conversation about installing a living wall in your own office, retail, or commercial spaces.